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Monthly Archives: October 2009

It probably feels that way to many Atlantic League baseball fans after AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com suddenly ceased operation after delivering coverage of the Championship Series earlier this month.

The very popular Web site, which originated in 2001 as a Somerset Patriots’ blog but switched to a league-wide focus in 2004, was shut down by its co-operators Scott Stanchak and Mike Ashmore. At its peak the site, which was the first of its kind in the league, drew an average of about 4,000 hits per day, according to Stanchak.

“I decided to stop operating the site because of only one reason: time,” Stanchak said. “I knew before this season that this would be my last. It was getting harder and harder to update as my schedule began to fill up more. I stopped covering the league full time in 2005 and since then began to try and grow as a sports journalist. I knew I had to put more focus into that. Mike was doing a majority of the work at this point so of course we’ve always talked about what the future held for each others’ career. After 10 years covering the league on a consistent basis, I knew it was time.”

AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com’s signature feature was its message board, but in recent years Stanchak and Ashmore often came under fire for the anonymous, critical opinions being posted by their readers. The comments feature was taken away this past season.

Both journalists were fixtures at Patriots’ home games during most seasons since 2001. Though their ballpark presence waned this year, the blog still provided the primary source of coverage for several teams without regular newspaper beat writers such as the Newark Bears, Camden Riversharks and Long Island Ducks.

“It was amazing how much the site grew from just a few followers to almost everyone in and around the league — players, fans, team and league officials — checking it out on a daily basis,” Stanchak said. “It grew into exactly what I had hoped for. I prided myself on always being honest, fair and balanced, and I leave with no doubt that I did just that.”

Stanchak, who oversees team Web sites for the National Basketball Association, will continue operating CheapSeatsRadio.net, the professional sports-based Web site that fans are now redirected to from the old Atlantic League URL. He also posts audio interviews online at ScottStanchak.com.

Ashmore also runs Thunder Thoughts (http://thunderbaseball.wordpress.com), a blog dedicated to coverage of the Trenton Thunder, the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate. The site is often cited in the work of the Yankees’ major-league beat writers. He posts audio interviews online at MikeAshmore.com.

Tentative plans call for Ashmore to return to focusing on the Patriots and revive PatriotsBaseball.com.

See that furry dog in the logo for my blog? That’s Sparkee, the Somerset Patriots’ primary mascot. The team is looking for performers to fill that role. If you’re interested, check out the press release below:

The Five-Time Atlantic League Champion Somerset Patriots are looking for individuals interested in performing as team mascots Sparkee and Slider for Patriots community appearances during the winter and into the 2010 season.

The Patriots are looking for individuals who enjoy entertaining large crowds and participating in many community events throughout the year.

Sparkee and Slider are fan favorites throughout New Jersey, especially among young Somerset Patriots fans. The mascots make various community appearances at schools, camps, and fundraising events for important causes supported by the Somerset Patriots.

The job requires creativity, the generation of leads for appearances, and the individuals hired will need to be responsible for the care of the mascot suit. The mascot performers report to the Community Relations department.

“Sparkee and Slider are very important parts of our community outreach throughout the year. The mascots entertain fans of all ages and have become the faces of the team to many young fans around Central New Jersey. We are looking to find the right people to fill these positions,” said Patrick McVerry, President/ General Manager of the Somerset Patriots.

The Patriots are looking for individuals who are 18 years or older and candidates must be able to provide their own transportation to appearances. Availability during daytime hours is preferred, but not necessary.

Interested individuals should call Brian Cahill at (908) 252-0700 ext. 222 or e-mail at bcahill@somersetpatriots.com to set up an appointment.

Sparky Lyle was suspended for the Somerset Patriots’ championship-clinching game but his punishment is long from over.

The Atlantic League has suspended its reigning Manager of the Year for the first nine games of the 2010 regular season for his actions Saturday night in Game 3 of the Championship Series at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, Md.

As part of a post-ejection tirade, Lyle made two obscene gestures toward the crowd seated behind the visitor’s dugout, chest-bumped an umpire and threw a water jug onto the field.

Lyle’s vulgarity, which included language, warranted the lengthy penalty, according to Atlantic League executive director Joe Klein.

The offices of the league and the Patriots have received dozens of e-mails from upset fans in the past few days.

“I’m very sorry about it,” said Lyle, who conveyed much greater remorse during a telephone interview Tuesday than in the hours immediately after it happened. “I have grandchildren, and I would’ve been upset if they saw it, too. I don’t blame the fans for their reaction, and I hope they accept my apology.”

A pitch hit Patriots’ slugger Jeff Nettles in the ribs during the seventh inning — his first plate appearance after hitting a game-tying home run. Both teams already had received warnings from the umpires following a benches-clearing incident earlier in the game.

Lyle, who had not been ejected for arguing with umpires since 2006, became enraged when the umpires ruled the hit by pitch was unintentional. He and former Patriots pitcher Jason Richardson were ejected from a 2007 playoff game after Richardson hit an opposing batter under similar circumstances.

“I haven’t been that mad in 10 years,” Lyle said, “but I’m not making excuses. I knew right away what I did was bad and it was wrong but it was too late.”

Patriots owner Steve Kalafer, who was not in attendance for Games 3 or 4, said he understands that Lyle “lost his emotions in the heat of the game” but called the ensuing conduct “unacceptable” and said it “will be dealt with accordingly.”

“They were described to me as childish and boorish,” Kalafer said of the actions displayed by his 12th-year manager. “It’s something that is completely out of character for someone who has managed 1,500 games and never had an incident like this. I’ve spoken to him and he is deeply apologetic. He understands there is a standard of action that must be met when you are the manager of the Somerset Patriots.”

Lyle watched from the outfield concourse Sunday afternoon as the Patriots claimed their fifth championship with a Game 4 victory. He was not allowed on the field for the trophy presentation but was in the postgame clubhouse.

WALDORF, MD. — Had there been a hard copy of the Atlantic League history book in the Somerset Patriots’ clubhouse Sunday afternoon, it would have gotten soaked in champagne and ruined.

Of course, that scenario would not have been all that tragic because now it needs to be rewritten anyway.

By defeating the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 3-1 in the Championship Series, the Patriots became the first team to win back-to-back titles and the first to succeed with primarily the same cast as the previous season.

“I’ve always said how hard it is to win back-to-back in this league,” said Sparky Lyle, who has managed the franchise to five championships in 12 years. “I didn’t think there was anything against us this year except that. But the last month or so I started thinking we really have a chance at doing this.”

His players liked their odds long before then.

Talk of a repeat filled the air during spring training in mid-April and never completely subsided.

Every mention of the failures suffered by past defending champions and past teams with too many holdovers generated a confident, borderline-egotistical response.

Reminders of the ultimate goal were omnipresent, including on the “Drive for Five” T-shirts worn every day during batting practice.

“It can work if you bring back core guys who like playing with each other and have a lot of success,” said catcher Travis Anderson, a Flemington resident. “What we do here in Somerset is the right way to do it. No other team in the league should’ve done this but us.”

Given more opportunities this season to celebrate than any other team in the history of the league, the Patriots instead saved their true jubilation for the ultimate prize.

The players basically used only high-fives to commemorate clinching a playoff berth, setting a record for most victories in a season, winning both half-season division titles and beating the Newark Bears in the Freedom Division Championship Series.

“We only celebrate one thing here: Championships,” second baseman Matt Hagen said. “That’s the only thing that matters.”

Stability was the signature for the 2009 team, which set a Patriots’ record for fewest players (37) used in a season.

“I can’t say enough about how this team stayed together from spring training until now,” said Jeff Nettles, who was named Championship Series Most Valuable Player for the second time during his six-year tenure with the Patriots. “When you have a good core group of guys who want to play with each other how can that be wrong?”

The final bit of adversity arrived Saturday night with the best-of-five series tied 1-1 and the Blue Crabs leading 4-0 after the first inning in Game 3. The Patriots rallied to take the lead in the seventh inning, then hung on despite Lyle’s ejection.

With their manager suspended Sunday, the Patriots cruised to an 11-1 victory that was followed by an unprecedented outpouring of emotion on the field and in the postgame clubhouse.

“You better take pride in it,” Hagen said. “If not, what are you playing for? Some other players on other teams may not look at it like that but unless winning is important to you, you don’t come to Somerset.”

The win-first attitude of Hagen and teammates, which can be rare when individual careers our on the line in the Atlantic League, is one of the reasons Lyle stated when labeling 2009 as the “best championship yet bar none.”

“It was everybody’s goal from the get-go,” he said. “So many guys got hurt and just kept playing on and struggling on and winning. Some of it wasn’t pretty, but a lot of it was pretty.”

WALDORF, MD. — The normally quiet Most Valuable Player had something to say, and no amount of champagne spraying in his face was going to stop him.

Members of the Patriots hoist the Atlantic League Championship trophy Sunday afternoon on the field at Regency Furniture Stadium. (Courtesy of the Patriots)

“To the best Atlantic League team ever,” Jeff Nettles toasted his teammates before succumbing to the celebratory wishes of the clubhouse.

There is nothing left to dispute Nettles’ claim after the Somerset Patriots finished off the winningest regular season in history by capturing their record fifth championship in 12 years and becoming the first team to repeat.

The final step was achieved Sunday afternoon as the Patriots defeated the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 11-1 in Game 4 of the best-of-five Championship Series at Regency Furniture Stadium.

“This is the best championship yet bar none,” manager Sparky Lyle said, “because everybody kept taking us lightly like we were just hanging around. And we weren’t hanging around. We were setting precedents.”

Lyle, who was serving the first game of a suspension, watched from a spot on the concourse behind the left-center-field wall as his starting pitcher, unlikely hero Jason Standridge, backed up a gutsy declaration by tossing a complete game.

Standridge, who struggled through a turbulent season, went to Lyle and asked to pitch Game 4 against the seemingly unbeatable John Halama.

“I felt so excited about wanting to pitch,” Standridge said. “I knew I could beat these guys. . . . Sometimes you just have that confidence of taking the bull by the horns.”

True to his 2009 form, Standridge looked like two different pitchers in the same game.

But the better version won out.

After a three-walk first inning in which he put the team behind, Standridge dominated.

The former major leaguer did not allow a hit from the third through eighth innings and escaped a sixth-inning jam by striking out Jeremy Owens to strand two runners on base. He finished with seven strikeouts.

His adrenaline-based yell while walking back to the dugout could be heard in the ballpark’s upper tier.

“It was awesome,” first baseman Travis Anderson said of Standridge’s confidence. “I’ll run through a wall for that guy.”

Halama, who had a 1.96 ERA in 69 regular-season innings and a 0.57 ERA in 15 2/3 playoff innings, was undone by control problems.

The nine-year major league veteran issued a season-high five walks and was charged with six runs — four earned — on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

He handed out three free passes in a four-batter span during the second inning, including two consecutively with the bases loaded and two outs, and dug the Blue Crabs into a shockingly quick 4-1 deficit.

“If you were going to call into Vegas, you were going to put your money on Southern Maryland,” said Standridge, who was admittedly motivated by all the pregame talk of his counterpart. “But that wasn’t the case today.”

Halama’s other two walks loaded the bases in the fifth before Mike Rodriguez delivered the knockout punch, a two-out two-run line drive single.

“I sat up there today and actually was not worried,” Lyle said. “It wasn’t that I knew we were going to blow them away or I knew we were going to win, I just had a calm feeling about the whole thing just because of the way everybody reacted in here before the game.

“I had a tear in my eye just watching the final out and the relief and everything that goes along with it — the gratification that you did something that hasn’t been done for 11 years.”

Four runs followed in the seventh and Nettles, who hit .375 with seven home runs and six RBI during the series, homered for the third straight game in the eighth.

A key contributor to the 2003 and 2005 title-winners, Nettles is the only two-time MVP selection.

“I would’ve been just as fine with all nine of us — or all 25 of us — getting it,” Nettles said as his eyes locked in on the championship trophy. “I’m glad they didn’t give me a (MVP) trophy because I probably would’ve left it on the field. I want that trophy right there.”

The 14 holdovers from the 2008 Patriots, who came to spring training with the goal to repeat, seemed to especially soak in every moment Sunday night, posing for countless photos in their navy blue back-to-back T-shirts and commemorative hats.

“From Day 1, to a man, our goal was to win a championship,” second baseman Matt Hagen said. “Anything less was unacceptable.”

Here is the reaction of Patriots’ president and general manager Patrick McVerry:

“That’s a baseball mind arguing a baseball call and I think he had an argument. Did he get carried away? Yes, and we wish he hadn’t. But Sparky Lyle is his own individual. I’ve spoken to him and he is remorseful.”

Patriots manager Sparky Lyle also has been suspended for Game 5 of the Atlantic League Championship Series — if the series goes that far — according to Atlantic League executive director Joe Klein.

Lyle’s Game 4 suspension was announced Saturday night but Klein said he was waiting to receive the umpire’s report to make a final decision on the length. Lyle was informed of the news Sunday morning and Klein said it is possible that the suspension will carry into next season.

Lyle was ejected in the seventh inning of Game 3 for arguing that an opposing pitcher should be ejected for hitting Jeff Nettles in the ribs with a pitch after both teams had been issued a warning.

The ensuing spectacle included bumping an umpire and throwing a water jug onto the field. But it was his profane gesture and language toward the crowd seated behind the visitor’s dugout that sealed Lyle’s fate, according to Klein.

If the Patriots win Game 4 — with pitching coach Brett Jodie acting as manager — there will be no Game 5.

The video of Game 3 is available on the home page of www.ibnsports.com. Jeff Nettles gets hit by a pitch at 2:21:30 and Lyle comes out of the dugout soon after. The profanity was not captured on video but the water jug appears at 2:23:28.

I’ve covered about 500 Atlantic League regular-season games — including about 10 in Southern Maryland — and 26 playoff games and never heard a ballpark as loud as Regency Furniture Stadium was Saturday night for Game 2.

Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pa. has been the standard for noise since the 2006 Championship Series — which I did not attend — and still might be, but this had to be pushing that decibel.

Regency Furniture Stadium has only 4,200 seats — fewest in the league — but has a capacity around 7,000, and the crowd of 5,372 was rocking during Game 2.

It was loud at first pitch and only grew louder after the benches cleared in the fourth inning. Travis Anderson, who was at the center of the incident, became the primary target of deafening boobirds every time his name was announced.

The crowd also erupted during manager Sparky Lyle’s tirade and clearly got under the veteran’s skin as he made a profane gesture to a group sitting behind the visitor’s dugout.

What does all this tell me? Southern Maryland has baseball fans, and I’ve always preferred crowds of 4,000 baseball fans to 6,000 dizzy bat race fans. Of course, the latter is much more prevalent in most minor-league baseball towns.

Let’s see if the Game 3 crowd lives up to that standard. It’s certainly a smaller group at first pitch.

“Here’s the whole thing…that’s the third time this year that it’s happened. We get the warnings. Sometimes we hit a guy, sometimes we don’t, but we get the warnings. And then one of our guys get hit, and it’s ‘Oh, I don’t think it was on purpose.’ And that’s what set me off tonight.”

“You heard what I just told them, I told them that was the best win we’ve had all year. Going

Manager Sparky Lyle is suspended for Game 4 following his Game 3 tirade. (Staff file photo)

down 5-0 in the second inning in a championship game? Come on. I mean, that’s just awesome. Especially after getting guys drilled.”

“I think (the benches clearing incident) made a whole lot of difference. We were already fired up after BA gave up five. We kept saying get one here, get one there and we’ll get there sooner or later. When they were coming in off the field, they were ready to go. They did not lay down.”

“Miller was absolutely awesome tonight. Especially since we decided to start BA and he was going to be in the bullpen, he came through with flying colors. He pitched a great freaking game. He shut it down.”

“When you get to this time of year, there isn’t any hanging your head, it’s just you’ve got a different job to do than the one you thought you had. That’s how we play.”

“The other night at our place, even though we lost, (Nettles) said,’ Are you guys going to step up and do something?’ And he went out and hit a home run. That’s what a leader does. Lead by example. Not that he’s going to hit a home run every time. But you know for all the time he’s been here, who else would you want up at the plate when the game is on the line?”

“It’s going to be difficult (to not be out there for game 4), but I’m going to be here. My coaching staff — the three of us — with the way we’ve worked this year, things won’t miss a beat. We’ll be fine, we’ll be absolutely fine. We’ll just let the game come to us, and whatever way the game comes to us, we’ll react to it.”

“(Standridge) came to us and said he wanted the ball (for game 4). Either BA or Miller was going to pitch tomorrow, so that gave us the luxury of having Miller tomorrow. We might not have won tonight if we didn’t have Miller.”

“The beauty of this game here, is there’s going to be a Game 5. I like my chances there too. I know how tough Halama is, everybody in that room knows. We might get him tomorrow. One thing I know, he’s not going to go nine. I know that. So we’ll see what happens.”

TRAVIS ANDERSON

“You wanna know what? Bicondoa was in a rhythm and was throwing a lot of strikes. He hit me? Oh well. We get a baserunner on, but a little fire is what we needed. Especially after last night’s game. And it seemed to work.”

“(What was said) is between Octavio and myself, and it’s over and done with. We talked when we were at first and it’s over.”

“I don’t think Sparky would have it any other way. He’s sticking up for us as players, and you love the guy for it. When they hit Nettles, he was right out there and he did what he was supposed to do. He came right out and stuck up for us.”

“I think we had some fire going, but they scored four runs in the first inning, so it kind of sucked it out. Then they scored another run, and we were kind of down in the dumps. Once that happened, it was a totally different game.”

“It was still early in the game. He was in a good groove there, and I hit a good pitch — a pitch that was a little up — and he’s down in the zone. With him, he tries to work both sides of the plate. We got to him. He’s tough, and we got to him.”

“Oh God. How do you (put Miller’s performance into perspective)? It was exactly what we needed. He went out there and just threw strike after strike and got out after out. He shortened the distance between him and the bullpen. It was awesome. He got on the same page as Belcher and they went to it.”

JOSH MILLER

“In that spot you want to go ahead and get outs and get through innings and give your team a chance to win the game. I know the game. My last five, six starts, I haven’t thrown the ball well. You take it how it comes.”

JEFF NETTLES

“I just wanted to get something going. They had a four-run lead, but we still had eight innings to do something.”

“If there’s a team that’s equal to us, it’s them. They’re going to come out hard and not just lay down so we’ve got to be ready for that.”

“They had issued warnings. I don’t believe it (the hit by pitch) was intentional but Sparky took exception to it.”

“We’re not going to look at it (Lyle’s suspension) as a disadvantage. It can be motivational, too. We want to go out and win it for him.”

“Sparky has got a way of sparking the team.”

BRETT JODIE

“In a game like that, Miller stayed in there because he was getting outs.”

“Minix get out of a jam in the seventh and was throwing well. There was no reason to bring somebody else (closer Bret Prinz) in for the ninth. Now we’ve got Prinzy for two innings (Sunday). I wanted to stay with the hot hand who had already been in the game. That’s an emotional game, and I wanted somebody who already had their emotions in check.”

“I can’t see it (Lyle’s suspension) as a positive thing. It’s always good to have another mind out there to bounce things around. Now you’re missing a key part of your staff.”

“It was a very emotional game. So were the two against Newark, but those were different because they were pitching duels. This was not a pitching duel. It had a different kind of emotion.”

“I walked in today and Travis was in the training room. He said ‘I’m playing this game.’ That’s great. We never said he wasn’t, but that’s what you want. You want people who want to play that badly.”